Ireland v Scotland: Facts & Figures

We look at some of the facts and figures ahead of this weekend's trio of Ireland v Scotland Six Nations matches - Friday's Under-20 duel in Athlone, the Women's encounter in Ashbourne on Saturday and the headline act at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

- Ireland Women achieved their first ever Grand Slam last season and have won eight of their last nine Six Nations matches

- Ireland have not been beaten at Ashbourne since England were the visitors in 2011

- Scotland Women are on a poor run which has seen them suffer three successive whitewashes with their most recent victory in the Six Nations coming in the opening round of the 2010 campaign at home to France

- Fortunes have switched in contests between Ireland and Scotland at Women's level, the first 14 encounters between 1993-2006 were all won by Scotland but the eight most recent fixtures have all been won by Ireland

Match Ticket/Travel Info: Tickets for the Ireland Women's matches against Scotland and Wales at Ashbourne RFC will be available for purchase at the gate on matchdays.

Tickets prices are as follows: Adult €10; Student/child €5; Cars/buses of more than four people, €5 per person.

For the two Friday night games, Old Belvedere RFC are running supporters' buses to Ashbourne from Dublin city. The buses will leave Old Belvedere RFC on Anglesea Road at 6pm sharp and pick up at Jury's Hotel, Custom House Quay at 6.15pm. The buses will return at about 11pm.

There are two options for those wishing to travel to games on the Old Belvedere buses, and both include entry into the game and the return trip on the bus: a one-game ticket costs €20 and a two-game ticket costs €35.

If you would like to reserve seats on the buses, please contact Old Belvedere's Emer McElhinney (0868892166) or Ann Marie Ruttledge (0871253853).

- Ireland's only three victories since the opening round of last season's RBS 6 Nations have been against the USA, Canada and Samoa while they have won just one of their past five fixtures at the Aviva Stadium

- Ireland have lost their last four RBS 6 Nations matches but have never lost five in-a-row in the 14-year history of the tournament

- Ireland's only round 1 loss since 2004 came at home to Wales in 2012

- Scotland have won just two of their last eight Test matches, against Italy and Japan

- The Scots' only away win in the RBS 6 Nations in their last 17 fixtures since 2006 was 23-20 over Ireland at Croke Park in 2010

- Scotland have only once before started an RBS 6 Nations campaign with a victory: 20-16 at home to France in 2006

- Scotland have won just once in Dublin since 1998, prevailing at Croke Park in 2010

ON THE PITCH

- Of players to make over ten carries, Keith Earls had the best average gain rate of anyone, making 10 metres per carry (18 carries, 180 metres) in last season's RBS 6 Nations

- Scotland scored five tries from phase one play during the 2013 tournament, the same as the other five nations combined. Conversely, they were the only team not to score a try from 7+ phases of play

- All five of the tries Ireland conceded in the 2013 Six Nations came in the second 40 minutes

- Donnacha Ryan won four more lineouts than anyone else during the 2013 tournament, to top the list with 23

- Rory Best was the best lineout thrower last season with an 81% success rate

- Scotland had the best place-kickers in 2013 with a combined 85% place-kicking rate

- Scotland conceded the most penalties last season: an average of almost 15 per match